Midnight Pub

i fought the web and...i won ^¥^

~wolfinthewoods

browsing reddit/in the hot sun/

i fought the web and/i won

i fought the web and/i won

well...

i finally did it

i defeated the internet

battered heaps of the aluminum frames

of aws servers lay in disarray before me

you may not even see this post...

okay, but really

i finally did something i'd been wanting to do

for a looooong time

for the past five years i've been acutely aware

of the web's demand on my attention

and in that time have taken pains

to lessen that influence dramatically

two decades ago i was going to uni for comp sci

and through that time until about five years ago

i was

\__--| H O O K E D-IN--
                       \               

gaming

coding

browsing

streaming

assignments

everything at the altar of the screen

and then

i had an epiphany

if i go into comp sci as a career

and i play games

and stream

and also use a smartphone

...the VAST proportion of my day will have been spent

on one screen or another

constantly hooked into the digital world

it repulsed me

i actively resisted it

BUT

it's allure was still somewhat irresistable

i gamed

steamed

did comouter work

just to a lesser degree, but still very much engaged

flash forward to yesterday

i finally broke the camel's back with a two by four

initially i wrote out a long journal piece

(which will go on my gemlog soon)

about my history with the internet the past 20 years

i wrote down a lot i had been already thinking for

a long while

and then, later last night

i just had it

the overwhelming urge towards novelty

finding rabbit holes

incessantly finding and downloading content

that i may or may not ever get around to

I deleted EVERYTHING

and not the way i had done in the past

looking at what i had to make a log so i could

potentially grab it again in the future

i just said to hell with it

bookmarks

GONE

ebooks

GONE

comics

GONE

games

GONE

the only thing i DID keep was my music

which i actually do listen to all of quitw frequently

the thing is

i know where to find

anything i could need at any possible moment

but when it's just sitting there,

on my phone

on my hard drive

it juat creates an itch in the back of my head

that 'you really nees to read xyz sometime'

fuck a backlog

it's back to the good old days

where the web could still surprise me

and tantilize

before i was so obsessed at finding everything

i could

ALL the time

and it's so relieving

so this morning i embraced the chaos

went ob marginalia search and found a new

little site that i wouldn't have

if i'd still been shackled to my bookmarks

it's a cool page with a bunch of french music albums streaming

(and i love french music)

here it is, enjoy

https://play.dogmazic.net/index.php

gemini://wolfinthewoods.pollux.casa/
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inquiry

I'm slowly moving toward approaching life in general as you describe, which to me means being unaware of anything/everything but my surroundings this moment, and responding/reacting to such naturally, by which I mean without thought, especially the thought that I'm a free-willed person doing some free-willing. Rather, I want those responses/reactions to seem part and parcel of all the rest, as though I'm "being lived", in a manner of speaking.

As usual, words are pathetically inadequate....

(And, yes, I know I still owe you an example of my old Olympia typewriter typeface... but, see, the task pipeline my wife keeps overfilling keeps piping me in the shin....)

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detritus

為無為, have you ever read the Zhuangzi?

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inquiry

Never even heard of it. Found a pdf online. Massive. Eyes glazed over quickly.

Could you possibly enumerate what you consider its main points/teachings?

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detritus

You know, I am not even sure!

I should read it again :-)

[edit] not that I even read the whole of it. Maybe this time...

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inquiry

I think a lot of my minimalism the last decade - or whatever it's been - was in no small part inspired from slowly discovering more efficient ways of stating what "brings me there", so to speak. So despite the text you referenced allegedly being a major Taoist work, the fact it appears to be of a length that would take me the better part of what remains of my life to finish turns out to be something I take as "a sign" it's not for me.

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detritus

Honestly, I agree. The book is full of fables that are all but straightforward, and requires an appreciation of chinese culture for a more adequate comprehension.

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wolfinthewoods

same

although there are

still things hard not to pay attention to

like genocide

but

i try not to get

too hooked into the

media-o-sphere

bad for one's mental state

and a sense of agency over yourself

like you're on some

`°•mANiC rOLleRcOaSt€r¡•°´

with methed-out schizophrenic

please just let me off

oh hot damn

what do i pay these bulgarian trolls for?!

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inquiry

I can't tell you how honored I feel to regularly read you and tffb in this "place".

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wolfinthewoods

thanks

that means a lot

<3

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detritus

Congratulations on the big victory!

I still have all my ebooks in my hard drive.

For me it's different, though, I NEED them.

Just kidding, I don't really need them. In fact, I long for the day I read from the Big Book of Nature.

It could be any time.

But I choose to postpone it.

To build up knowledge,

to learn all I could learn about the world:

A bit of history,

a number of languages,

something or other here and there.

I quite like reading, I have a number of books that I ABSOLUTELY will read.

I am engaging in a study of magic

mysticism

alchemy.

I know it won't last forever.

The day will come when I will be ready to do away with all those books, and then I will just have a few books, those books that shall be good for a lifetime.

I will BUY them in paperback. I will cherish their physical form.

And I won't be needing any screen.

I won't be needing any screen.

For the time being, I appreciate the immateriality of ebooks, the huge library of background knowledge which will coalesce in the back of my mind. I learn to unlearn all that I was fed from childhood.

All those ideas about liberalism

of money

of modernity

Whatever the fuck. One has to read a lot to shed those dying shells of ideas.

Knowledge is all I seek, it's the only kind of wealth I know of.

That and the wealth of Nature.

* * *

Sorry for copying your style, wolf. Somehow, it sticks.

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wolfinthewoods

haha

well, they say imitation is

the sincerest form of flattery

so i'll choose to flatter myself

yeah

i dabble a bit in the mystic spheres

there was a lot

that i had a hard time

parting with

although

having hall's secret teachings of all ages in print

much more satisfying

i want one of the early

musty and old

hardcover editions

in fact it's going to be fun searching for

old occult booka in print

like some sort of nick cage

sneakibg into secret society libraries

(more likely some

frail old man's disorganized

hole in the wall bookshop)

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inquiry

I propose we all start referring to that style as "wolfing it"!

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detritus

Wolf style, and 'wolfing it', it's going to become one of my favorite tools in my stylistic arsenal!

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inquiry

We could also call it merely "wolfing" as a weird sort of side nod to the notion of "rolfing" (not that I know anything about it, espouse it, etc.).

(No idea how/why that came to mind.)

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tffb

On words and syntax

Form and prose

Perhaps a poet corner

A backroom of the pub, half open and separated by half bar

A new wing

Past the pool table middle rooms

Before the EXIT to cat-filled alley

A few seats and small tables

Soft, gentle smoke gliding through the air

Exhaling relief of/from the world

To have espresso or a heavier beverage

An homage to Horace

Making words for expression and wisdom

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inquiry

I'd like to see some bad 1970's paneling in that backroom.

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